​Turkish intelligence ‘aided shipment of arms’ to Syrian rebel areas

Turkey helped deliver weapons to rebel-controlled Syrian territories, according to testimony from prosecutors and gendarmerie officers, Reuters says. It contradicts Ankara's denials that it sent arms to rebels and thereby contributed to the rise of ISIS.

Testimony from
gendarmerie officers, seen by the agency, allege that rocket
parts, ammunition, and semi-finished mortar shells were carried
in trucks accompanied by the country's state intelligence agency
(MIT) to parts of Syria under Islamist control. This occurred
more than a year ago, according to the testimony.

Meanwhile, testimony from prosecutors backed up the story of
Ankara sending weapons across the border.

The prosecutors said that four trucks were searched in the
southern province of Adana in raids by police and gendarmerie –
one in November 2013 and three others in January 2014 – on the
orders of prosecutors acting on tip-offs that they were carrying
weapons.

While the first truck was seized, the three others were allowed
to continue their journey after MIT officials accompanying the
cargo threatened police and resisted the search, according to the
testimonies and the prosecutor's report.

"Our investigation has shown that some state officials have
helped these people deliver the shipments," prosecutor Ozcan
Sisman, who ordered the search of the first truck on Nov. 7,
2013, after a tip-off that it was carrying weapons illegally,
told Reuters earlier this month.

But according to President Tayyip Erdogan, the three trucks –
which were stopped on January 19 – belonged to MIT and were only
carrying aid. He added that the prosecutors had no right to
search the vehicles, and accused them of being part of what he
calls a “parallel state” run by his political enemies
who are determined to discredit the government.

Sisman and Takci, another prosecutor, have been detained and face
provisional charges of carrying out an illegal search.

"I did not want to prevent its passage if it belonged to MIT
and carried aid but we had a tip-off saying this truck was
carrying weapons. We were obliged to investigate," Sisman
said of the January 1 search. He added that it was prompted from
a tip-off from police.

The request for Sisman's arrest, also seen by Reuters, accuses
him of revealing state secrets and harming the government's
reputation by portraying it as aiding terrorist groups.

Sisman and Takci deny the charges.

More than 30 gendarmerie officers involved in the January 1
attempted search and the events of January 19 also face charges –
including military espionage and attempting to overthrow the
government – according to an April 2015 Istanbul court document.

At the time of the searches, the Syrian side of the border in
Hatay province, which neighbors Adana, was controlled by hardline
Islamist rebel group Ahrar al-Sham.

Additional testimony

Witness testimony seen by Reuters from a gendarme involved in a
Jan. 1, 2014 attempt to search another truck said MIT officials
had talked about weapons shipments to Syrian rebels from depots
on the border.

Meanwhile, a court ruling calling for the arrest of three people
in connection with the truck stopped in November 2013 said it was
loaded with metal pipes manufactured in the Turkish city of Konya
which were identified as semi-finished parts of mortars.

The court order for the arrest of one of the truck drivers, seen
by Reuters, cited a police investigation which said that the
weapons parts seized that day were destined for "a camp used
by the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization on the Syrian
border.”

Official line

It comes as Syria and some of Turkey's Western allies accuse
Ankara of letting fighters and arms over the border, in its haste
to see Syrian President Bashar Assad toppled. They say that some
of those fighters joined the Islamic State (IS, formerly
ISIS/ISIL).

However, Turkey has denied arming Syrian rebels or assisting
hardline Islamists. According to diplomats and Turkish officials,
the country has imposed tighter controls on its borders in recent
months.

"I want to reiterate our official line here, which has been
stated over and over again ever since this crisis started by our
prime minister, president and foreign minister, that Turkey has
never sent weapons to any group in Syria," Erdogan's
spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Wednesday.